Dream of the Future
by Bunny on the Moon
Summary: ONESHOT, AU, onesided Yami no Yuugi x Malik, Malik x Ryou. It's been ten years since he made that promise to me. I wonder if he's kept it, after all of these years?


**Dream of the Future  
30 Kisses Challenge, theme #07 - superstar**

_"Malik, can I ask you something?"_

_"Sure, go ahead."_

_"When you're a big famous rock star..."_

_"Oh, don't get into that again, Yami. I'm not going to be famous."_

_"No, just listen to me. When you're a big famous rock star, you'll remember me, right? You won't become like all of those self-centered actors who forgot everyone who ever impacted their life before they got such a high status, right?"_

_"...of **course** I will. I could never forget you even if I **wanted** to."_

_"Promise me that you won't forget."_

_"Y'know, I still think this is stupid. I'm never going to be anything more than plain old Malik Ishtar."_

_"**Promise me**, Malik."_

_"Okay, fine. I promise I won't forget you if somehow I end up famous."_

* * *

It was ten years ago when he told me that lie.

The one about ending up famous, that is.

Both of us had always been into music. Japanese rock was our favorite - day in, day out, we'd sit in his bedroom and turn the music up so loudly that we'd have the neighbors complaining. Our rooms were decorated with all kinds of posters... Dir en grey, X Japan, Malice Mizer, you named it, we'd have a poster or a CD of it somewhere. The visual kei scene basically took over our lives.

So when Malik told me that he wanted to start his own visual kei band someday, I was thrilled. Unfortunately, there was not a shred of musical talent within me, so I couldn't assist him with his dream. Not like he really **needed** my help; he was an excellent singer, but he didn't particularly think so. He never really liked the sound of his own voice - **why**, I have no idea, all of our friends thought it was amazing. Some people might've seen his modesty as an excuse to fish for compliments, but they were wrong; Malik was not one to do something like that. It was a simple concept, really... he just didn't have much confidence in his own abilities.

Perhaps that was why he always said that he would never be famous.

But now, as I looked down at the ticket in my hand, I realized that he had lied to me. It wasn't a bad lie, of course... after all, one can't see the future, so there was no way he could've known that someday he would be in a chart-topping band, with over three million fans worldwide.

"Cataclysm" was what they were called. They had burst out of the indies world with a bang four years ago, and this was their first concert after returning from their tour in the United States. And for once, I'd been able to afford to go see one of their concerts. Granted, I had to travel all the way to Tokyo for it, but that was a minor detail. I wasn't very far from the stage - maybe only five or six rows back - so I had a pretty good viewpoint from where I was standing. Being as short as I am was a bit annoying, since I had to peek over the heads of fangirls, but really... what are a few fangirl heads if you're going to see your best friend face-to-face over them for the first time in several years?

Of course I'd seen pictures of the band, they were all over the internet and the music channels, and I must admit, I was a little surprised to see how Malik had changed in appearance over the years. But tonight was going to be a surprise; this was their last concert before the release of their next single, entitled "Mirai no Yume" (1), and the band would be sporting new costumes never seen by the public eye before.

I was excited, to say the least.

To this day, I'm still not really sure why I asked him to remember me. It just seemed like one of those clichéd soap operas; the ones where the woman says "please, remember me in ten years" when the one she's secretly been in love with is leaving for college or the Navy or something of that nature. Perhaps it was because I was in the woman's position - yes, all of these years, I've been in love with him. It took a long time for me to admit that to myself, and I even scolded myself for it; if he didn't remember who I was after this time, then it would only result in pain on my part. I didn't want to have to deal with that pain, but at this point, there was no mor arguing with myself.

The overhead lights dimmed, breaking my concentration, and I turned my gaze up towards the stage. Everything was dark except for a single spotlight on the stage, falling over a tall and lithe man with a long red-orange ponytail - the band's manager, and the emcee. He tapped the microphone in front of him a couple of times before speaking.

"Are you ready to rock!" he trilled, causing an uproar from the audience, myself included in said uproar. A wide grin spread across his face as he continued speaking, despite that the audience was still screaming. "Then I'd like you all to scream loudly for - for the first time back on Japanese soil - the one... the **only**... CATACLYSM!"

With that, the spotlight went out, and I swear I nearly went deaf when a girl next to me screamed so loudly that I could almost **feel** the vibrations from her throat. Several nerve-wracking moments after the spotlight shut off, several multicolored lights began swirling around the concert arena. I could see smoke spilling off the stage, and the silhouettes of four figures - the band members, no doubt - clouded by the smoke. A different-colored light focused on each of them.

Black-haired Nori on the drums, swathed in blue light.

Red light gave the white hair of Kuro, the lead guitar, a nigh-demonic look, which was odd considering that he was supposedly the shyest of the five-member band.

Yellow light fell upon Shisei, the second guitarist, and I could see the light glimmer off of his facial piercings even from where I was standing. The light gave his blue and green hair a strange tone.

Kasumi, the bassist, was under the green light, and seeing his - yes, **his** - bright purple hair bound into two curly pigtails drove the fangirls mad once again.

The microphone was left abandoned - of course, since the final member of the band just **had** to make a big flashy entrance - and the lights died down again, only to come up once again moments later, with the addition of the same white spotlight in the middle, enveloping the final member of Cataclysm.

Malik. Or, as the fangirls referred to him due to his stage name, "Riku".

My eyes widened when I saw him. **Gods**, he was gorgeous. The last time I'd seen anything of him, his hair reached nearly to his waist. The fangirls adored how long it was, and I'm sure most of them were pretty shocked when they saw him on stage. His hair had been chopped off so that it didn't even reach his shoulders, and had an almost feathery appearance. His bangs fell over his left eye, shrouding it from view, and while it was still the same flaxen-blonde color it had always been, there were now several streaks of shiny black in it. His skin was still that same bronze, and eyes that same pale shade of lavender, and his overall appearance hadn't changed that much. It was mostly just the hair and his... ensemble, really.

All five of them were dressed in black. Malik's costume was actually quite simple compared to the other band members. It was a long trenchcoat with three silver chains stretching across the middle, holding it together somewhat - and it was very obvious that he wasn't wearing a shirt beneath it, as I could see the tanned skin of his chest (and promptly felt my face heat up). There was a pair of small, feathery white wings attached to the back of his trenchcoat, and his pants were a shiny vinyl material. They were tucked into his boots which came up to his knees and had several large silver buckles and zippers on them.

I could've died.

His black lips curled into a half-smirk, and he whispered into the microphone: "Let's go."

The crowd erupted into cheers again as Kuro struck his guitar strings, their sound flooding through the arena. Oh, this was going to be **good**. Within moments, I found myself lost into the world that is Malik's voice.

Nearly two hours later, I was still standing. My head was starting to hurt a little due to the volume of the music (not to mention the screaming fangirls), but I didn't care. I was having a blast, but my mind was whirl - had he seen me yet? I mean... **I** certainly hadn't changed since we'd last spoken with each other. My hair was still that wild mess of crimson, gold, and black - albeit a bit shorter now, but I was still **very** recognizable. He had to have seen me, even over the heads of the fangirls in front of me.

The music of their song "Black Lotus" died down to nearly silence, and I blinked in conclusion as Malik smiled out at the audience before speaking into the microphone.

"Ahh, okay," he started. He sounded a tad... nervous? "As I'm sure all of you know, tonight is the debut of our new single, 'Mirai no Yume'... so, we're going to finish up with that." The audience collectively protested, but Malik simply laughed and waved his hand in an apologetic gesture. "Aww, don't be like that... I promise, you'll all like it! But there's a person out there tonight that I especially want to enjoy this."

The audience started murmuring, and I sighed and shook my head in exasperation. Someone in this audience was a very lucky person, to have a song dedicated to them by Malik. I looked up again and found myself gazing into lavender depths, and I swear my heart must've skipped a beat. He was looking **directly** at me. A warm smile stretched across his lips, and he spoke again. "You know who you are... and this song is for you."

Oh Gods.

I felt my face heat up again as Kuro and Shisei played the opening chords for the song. I could already tell that it was much slower than a lot of their other music, but it still had the intensity that comes with the hard rock genre. When Malik started singing, I could've melted right then and there.

_You looked me in the eyes  
__And then you said to me  
__"You're gonna be somebody who will never forget me"_

_I looked you in the eyes  
__And then I said to you  
__"I could never forget you even if I wanted to"_

Oh Gods, oh Gods, oh Gods, he remembered. I can't believe it. Those were the **exact** words he had spoken to me ten years ago. After all of this time, he kept his promise, he **remembered**, oh Gods he remembered...

_And when you smiled  
__And looked away  
__I knew that in  
__Your heart I'd stay_

_And in your eyes  
__I sensed it then  
__That the future  
__Was deep within_

_You looked me in the eyes  
__And then you said to me  
__"You can dream of the future if you don't forget me"_

_So when the day comes that I must depart  
__I'll take with me a piece of your heart  
__So in my memory I'll hold dear  
__The images of you - as if you were here_

After the chorus, the band launched into a long musical interlude. The melody of it... oh Gods, just listening to it made all of the memories from our teenage years come flooding back to me like water from a broken dam. I was surprised that my legs hadn't turned into jelly; I was surprised that I hadn't outright fainted, as I'm sure my face was beet red and all of the blood had rushed to my head and I can't believe he actually **remembered** and ohGodsI'mstartingtosoundlikeafangirl.

_You always stayed with me  
__When I was all alone  
__"Remember, when you're a big star, you can always come home"_

_I always stayed with you  
__When you were all alone  
__"I know I won't be a big star but I will come back home"_

_And when you smiled  
__And laughed at me  
__In your crimson  
__Eyes I could see_

_That there was no  
__Doubt in your mind  
__That my future  
__Would soon be mine_

Yes. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind that he would follow his dream. And as I watched him up on that stage, I couldn't help but smile - the biggest smile I'd done in years. Not only had he kept his promise, but he had taken my words to heart... and I knew, deep down, that this song had been written for **me**. And his voice carried all of the feelings that had been lost in the ten years we'd been apart, and now I was recieving them in one of the best ways I possibly could.

_You always stayed with me  
__When I was all alone  
__"Dream of the future but then promise you'll come back home"_

_So when the day comes that I must forget  
__I'll defy myself for no regret  
__So in my heart I will hold close  
__The images of you that I loved most_

_So when the day comes that I must depart  
__I'll take with me a piece of your heart  
__So in my memory I'll hold dear  
__The images of you - as if you were here_

_So in my soul I will hold true  
__Dreams of the future and memories of you_

The song then ended on a short guitar riff by Shisei, and as this happened, Malik's eyes met mine again. I was drawn in, and the screaming fangirls next to me barely even registered within my love-clouded thoughts. It was as if the two of us were the only ones in the concert arena, and he was smiling, oh was he **smiling** - I only snapped back into reality when one of the girls accidently bumped into me. I turned around to give her a piece of my mind, but then I looked back up at Malik, only to find that he was now looking out across the audience.

"I hope everyone enjoyed the show," he said cheerfully, "and don't forget that our new single comes out a week from today!" With that said, he jabbed his arm out toward the crowd and pointed his finger - his little trademark, except this time it was pointing at **me** - and our eyes met again. He grinned widely and winked before the entire audience chorused with him: "BYE BYE DESU!"

The lights dimmed down again. When they came back up a few moments later, he and the rest of the band were gone. And not even five seconds had passed before I started missing him.

I think I was in some sort of daze as I exited the concert arena and started making my way back to the hotel that I was staying at. I walked down the sidewalk, the song playing through my mind like some eternally-ongoing train of thought. A squeal from behind me broke me from my trance, and I glanced back behind my shoulder to see a few girls walking behind me. Coincidentially, it was the same few that had been around me in the audience.

"Oh my **God**, Megumi-chan, I swear Riku was looking **right** at me that whole time! I could've died!" Wrong.

"No **way**, Yuri-chan, he was **so** looking at me!" Also wrong.

"Um, you're both wrong..." Correct. "...he was looking at me." Or not.

"Waaaa, Aya-chan, you traitor!"

I grinned smugly, chuckling to myself. Heh. Foolish girls. He was looking at **me**.

* * *

I'm not sure what time I woke up the next day, but I woke up feeling tired, my head was hurting - despite that the song was **still** playing in it - and I was feeling a little bit listless. I had to get up though, because I had to check out of the hotel at noon. It was probably a bit close to that time, so I had a quick shower, packed up what little things I had brought, and made my way down to the lobby. The train to take me back to Domino wouldn't arrive until six o'clock, so I had quite a bit of time to kill beforehand. I had no idea what to do - this was my first time visiting Tokyo, so there was probably a lot to do and see.

After I checked out of the hotel, the employee working at the check-out counter stopped me. "Excuse me. Mutou? Mutou Yami?" he asked.

I looked at him, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "...yes, I am Mutou Yami."

The employee handed me a piece of paper that was folded rather awkwardly. "I was asked to give this to you when you checked out. There was no name on it, I'm afraid..."

Hm? What is this? I set down my single suitcase and unfolded the paper. Scribbled on it was a single line of text, that looked somewhat messy.

_Meet me at Café Briolette on the corner of Yanagi and Sakurajima_.

...Interesting. I looked back up at the employee who has given me the note. "And you're sure there was no name here? Do you remember what the person looked like?" I queried.

"Hmm... well, from what I remember, he was blonde. He was wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, and had quite the suntan... I think he was ganguro. (2) And he wore a lot of gold jewelry... I'm sorry, I can't remember much more than that, I'm afraid," he said, shaking his head apologetically.

My eyes widened. It couldn't be... could it? "No, that's fine," I said. "I have a pretty good idea of who it was." I thanked him and pocketed the note before picking up my suitcase and hastily walking out of the hotel.

Malik. It had to have been him. I don't know anyone else with blonde hair and tanned skin - unless you counted Jounouchi in the summertime - and he always had wore a lot of gold jewelry. I couldn't think of anyone else that it might have been. Unless this was someone's sick idea of a joke, which seemed a little bit farfetched. After all - **wait**. How did he know which hotel I was staying in? Eh, I figured I would ask him whenever I got to... wherever he was. If it was even him.

Café Briolette wasn't very hard to find. There was one of these back home in Domino, and most of the restaurants looked about the same. I opened the door, the familiar smell of coffee and various baked goods stimulating my senses. I quickly scanned the area for the one who asked to meet here, and I promptly spotted him sitting at a small table near the back of the restaurant.

I could feel my stomach starting to flip-flop as I slowly made my way towards him. His back was facing me, so I couldn't be sure if it really was him - it fit the description: blonde hair, baseball cap, gold jewelry... when I reached him, I gently tapped him on the shoulder. "...Malik?" I asked, not sure if I was even audible or not. It felt as if my throat had suddenly closed up.

He turned around and looked at me, familiar lavender eyes peering over his sunglasses. He broke out into a wide smile and stood up, pulling me into a tight hug. "Yami! You came!" he squealed. Yes, **squealed**. If there was one thing that certainly hadn't changed about him, it was his childlike exuberance. That had always been one of my favorite quirks of his.

I chuckled and wrapped my arms around him, returning his hug. "...yes, Malik, I did." How could I not have come? There was no way in Hell that I would pass up a possible opportunity to see my best friend. I hadn't seen him face-to-face in several years!

He let go of me and grabbed my shoulders, holding me out at arm's length. "Wow... you haven't changed a **bit**," he said, grinning broadly.

I raised an eyebrow. "I most certainly have too," I said, fake-pouting. Ah, it was already starting to feel like old times...

Malik laughed. "Okay, fine, you've gotten taller." With that said, he tugged me down into the seat next to the one he had been sitting in, and took off his baseball cap. It was then that I noted that his hair was completely blonde - perhaps the black streaks that had been in it the night before was only a temporary dye.

He looked relatively normal - pretty much the same as he did in his teenage years, except with the shorter hair. He wore a tight black t-shirt that exposed a small part of his abs - he always **did** like those belly-baring shirts - and simple khaki pants. It was quite a change from the attire I had seen him in last night. We were actually dressed fairly similarly; I wore a black sleeveless shirt and leather pants. Heh. He liked his belly shirts, and I liked my leather. Some things **never** change.

I grinned awkwardly at him; I wasn't quite sure what to say. This was the first time I'd seen him in a very long time - **too** long, if you asked me - and I didn't want to start our conversation off with something corny. "So... how have you been doing, Malik?" I asked. Great. Nice going, Mutou - way to not sound corny.

He simply chuckled and ran a hand through his hair. "Ra, Yami... it's been years since anyone's called me by my real name."

I raised my eyebrow. "Oh? Would you rather I called you **Riku**?"

"No, no, it's fine," he said, waving his hand in a halting motion, "it brings back memories." He grinned again. Gods, every time he did that I could just feel my insides turning into mush.

...'Insides turning into mush'? When did I become such a **sap**?

"I see," I said, looking down at the table. "You didn't answer my question, though."

"Oh, right, that." Malik leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms behind his head. "I've been doing good. We just got back from our tour in the United States, buuuut I'm sure you heard about that."

I nodded. "Yes, I've been keeping tabs on Cataclysm ever since they emerged from the indies scene." It was true, I had. Ever since I had seen the music video for their first major single, "Kodoku" (3), I had been hooked. Of course, it's only natural - this was my best friend's **band** that we're talking about here, but putting bias aside, I truly enjoyed their music. I owned every single and album of theirs since they had become popular four years ago. To say I was a fanboy would be an understatement, really... "I meant, how are you doing on a personal level? Like... have you found a girlfriend yet?" I hoped not.

He snorted. "No, not a girlfriend... boyfriend, yes." Oh, that's right. He was bisexual. But then again, so was I, so it wasn't a big deal. But when he said that, I couldn't help but falter a bit. I shouldn't have expected him to still be single after all of these years. Not with his looks. Whoever had his heart was extremely lucky... "You probably remember him. Bakura Ryou?"

Of course... Ryou. He had gone to the same school as we had, and Malik had come to me on numerous occasions to talk about his crush on the boy. "Yes, I remember him," I said. Of course, I'd always been a tad jealous of Ryou... but now, it looked like my friend had finally captured his heart. I was happy for Malik, but I couldn't stop the growing feeling of sadness within me. "Gods, I haven't seen him in **years**. What's he been up to lately?"

Malik raised an eyebrow at me. "You haven't been doing your homework, have you, Mutou? Ryou is the lead guitarist for Cataclysm," he said. "Or maybe you know him better as 'Kuro'?" He smirked at me, and it clicked in my head. "Kuro" had obviously come from Ryou's surname of "Ba**kura**". And I had seen him; he had played in the concert. I can't believe the white hair didn't tip me off. And now it was all coming together - Kuro was said to be the shyest and sweetest member of Cataclysm, and Ryou had always fit that description. Malik continued, "He writes all of the music for the band."

I smiled. Granted, it was a little bit forced, but it was a smile. "He does amazing work with that," I said. It was true, Ryou's music was excellent. I never knew that he'd had that kind of creativity, to be honest. "How long have you two been dating?" I asked.

"It's been maybe five years now," Malik said after a few moments, as if he'd had to think about it. So they'd been together since before the band went major. "But yeah... he's been doing fine. He's actually going to meet us here in a while, when he heard that you'd been at the concert, he wanted to see you."

"That reminds me, Malik... how did you know what hotel I was staying at?" That question **had** been nagging at me this whole time.

"Er..." I could see his face turn the slighted shade of red. "I sorta... went to every hotel in the area and asked if you were booked there," he said sheepishly.

I blinked. He had taken all of that time out for **me**? It was quite typical of Malik though, he always did do things the hard way. I chuckled in amusement. "You realize that you could've just **called** the hotels and asked, right?"

Malik frowned, an adorable pout crossing his features. Well, he **is** blonde, after all... "Yeah, that didn't occur to me until **after** I had found the one you were staying at." I smacked my forehead. Yes. Typical Malik.

...I wouldn't have had it any other way.

For the next while, we passed the time making small talk, idly chatting about how our lives had gone since he'd left and formed the band. It turned out that he'd had quite a tough time forming it - he'd found that Ryou was musically inclined, and asked him to help form Cataclysm. Ryou had accepted, but from there it was quite a rough road. They didn't find others to be in the band with them until about a year and a half into their career. They had gone through two secondary guitarists and four different drummers; Nori, full name Hasegawa Nibori, had only been inducted into the band about a year ago. Malik had also talked about one of their drummers in particular that had actually been a woman. She had been a brash and rude woman by the name of Hotaru, and she had left the band because she had really wanted to sing.

"We were better off without her anyway," Malik said, scrunching up his nose. "But anyway, yeah, We've been through some rough times, but it's all been worth it. The record sales have been **phenomenal** over the last couple of years. It's... really great."

I grinned again, my jealousy over his relationship with Ryou pushed aside. "I'm really happy for you, Malik. You've followed your dream... and now look where it's landed you. You're in one of the most popular visual kei bands in Japan."

Malik looked up at me, a warm smile crossing his lips. "I have you to thank for that, Yami. You're the one who stayed behind me the whole time I was considering forming Cataclysm. When I didn't believe that I would become a famous rock star, you did." He gazed at me, an unreadable emotion reflected in his lavender eyes.

I just sat and smiled at him, embarassed (and probably blushing a bit as well). He just laughed and fondly patted my shoulder. The moment was broken as someone approached our table, delicate voice cutting through the slightly tense air. "...Yami-kun?"

I looked up to meet the brown eyes of none other than Ryou. In spite of myself, I smiled at him and stood up. It **was** nice to see him again. "Hello, Bakura-kun," I said, bowing slightly. When we had been in school together, I hadn't really known him all that well - we were little more than acquaintances, really. But Malik had told me that he'd talked to Ryou about me a lot, so it was almost as if the white-haired man knew me as well as Malik did. When I came back up from my bow, Ryou surprised me by pulling me into a friendly hug.

"Oh, it's been so long since I last saw you!" he gushed. This was... odd, in a way. Perhaps being in the band - and with Malik - had made Ryou be a bit more positive and outgoing? In school, he'd always been so shy and reserved; most of the time I'd forgotten he was even there. But now, he seemed almost as cheerful as Malik was.

After he released me from his hug, I moved aside so that Ryou could sit in the chair next to Malik, and I moved into one across the table from them. Ryou hadn't changed that much over the years, either. He, like Malik, had cut his once-long hair off to a couple of inches above his shoulders, and the particular cut sort of framed his face, giving him even more of an innocent air than he'd originally had.

I put on another semi-forced smile as I watched Malik drape his arm across Ryou's shoulders and briefly kiss the side of his head. I had to admit, they did look good together, despite that they looked like polar opposites. Ryou was so pale compared to Malik, and I was pretty sure their personalities contrasted just as much. I stopped myself from thinking any further than that by leaning over the table slightly. "So, Bakura-kun... Malik tells me you two have been dating for quite a while now..."

The three of us continued to chatter amongst ourselves for God knows **how** long. It seemed like the next thing I knew, I was looking down at my watch and it was nearly five. "Ahh..." I muttered, briefly interrupting Malik from his story about him and a couple of fangirls. "I'd... better be going. I have walk to the train station to catch my train back to Domino. It leaves in an hour," I explained, shrugging at them apologetically.

"Well hey, don't worry about that," Malik said, casually waving his hand. "We'll give you a ride back, it's no big deal."

I blinked at Malik's offer, and then smiled widely. "Thanks."

* * *

A short while later, I found myself standing out by the train, suitcase in hand. I turned to look at Malik and Ryou, who were standing there hand-in-hand. "It was nice catching up with you both," I said, smiling. "I had a really great time. And I enjoyed the concert last night as well."

Malik grinned, detaching his hand from Ryou's before approaching me. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a CD case, handing it to me. "Here," he said, "it's our new single. It doesn't come out in the stores until next week, so you're getting the first official copy of it."

I took the CD, examining it. On the cover was Malik, in the same outfit he had worn at the concert the night before. He had his arms wrapped around himself, and his head was turned up to look at the cloudy sky above him. The whole cover was colored in sepia tones, all except for the kanji and text on the cover, which was embossed in gold. I looked back up at Malik, grinning even wider than I had been before. "Thank you," I said. "I can't wait to get home and listen to it."

He didn't respond, he simply pulled me into a tight hug, and I wrapped mine around his in response. I was quite surprised when I felt him plant a big kiss on my cheek. "Love you," he muttered. Again, I was surprised, but then I just smiled and hugged him tighter. Of course it wasn't the kind of love that I desired, but the love that a best friend can give. The kind of love that says 'I'll be here for you no matter what, and you'll always have a place in my heart'. That meant more to me than anything else I'd ever heard in a long time.

"Love you too," I responded, before letting him go. I grinned at him, and then Ryou came up and gave me a hug as well.

"It was really great seeing you, Yami-kun," he said. "I hope we can do this again sometime soon."

I raised my eyebrow. How would that work? The band was on tour all through Japan now, so of course I wouldn't be able to see them again for a while. As I returned Ryou's hug, I turned and looked at Malik. He just simply smiled, shrugged, and winked at me. I had a feeling that he had something up his sleeve, but at the moment I didn't know what.

Ryou released me from his hug, and I picked up my suitcase again, holding the CD in my free hand along with my boarding ticket. I looked down at my watch and saw that it was nearly six. "Well, I guess I'd better be off now," I said. "You two take care. I'll catch your next concerts on Pay-Per-View or something." I saw Malik exchange a look with Ryou, but decided not to give it a second thought as I turned and boarded the train. I quickly found a seat and turned to look at Malik and Ryou again. Malik had wrapped an arm around Ryou's waist, and both of them were waving at me. I waved back as the train started to pull off, and before I knew it, I couldn't see the two of them anymore.

I looked down at the CD in my hands. The cover was beautiful (well, it had Malik on it, of course it was), but I wondered what was on the CD itself, and inside of the booklet. As I opened the case, a folded-up piece of paper fell out of it and dropped onto my lap. It was folded much in the same clumsy way that the note I'd recieved at the hotel had been. I set the CD down in my lap, and picked up the paper, unfolding it. I smiled, seeing that it was another note - and a longer one this time.

_Yami -_

_You might not see this until you get home. But anyway. I'm glad you came to our concert! It was a total blast to see you again after all of these years. When you get home, keep an eye on your mail - you'll be recieving a gift pretty soon. It's front-row tickets to all of the concerts on this tour. Don't worry about transportation, we've got it covered. You just haul your little ass down to the bus station or train station or whatever, and we'll do the rest._

_We'll have to hang out again, of course. Next time, you can meet the rest of the band. I'll be telling them a lot about you, of course. What kind of best friend doesn't talk about you behind your back? But don't worry, I'll say good things._

_Until next time, then._

_Love, Malik_

_P.S. I can't thank you enough for encouraging me so much back when we were in high school. You're the reason that Cataclysm is what it is now._

_Thank you._

I smiled - the biggest one that I've done in years - and folded the note back up, putting it back into the CD case. I stared out the window, completely content. The sun was just beginning to set, and I was going to sleep a very happy man tonight.

Because I had the best friend that anyone could have ever asked for.

- _owari_ -

(1) "Mirai no Yume"; "Dream of the Future".  
(2) "Ganguro", a type of fashion among Japanese women that usually consists of very dark tanned skin, bleached hair, and heavy makeup.  
(3) "Kodoku"; "Solitude".

* * *

Oh, I so love how this one turned out. :D Um. Yeah. That song in there? MINE. If I find that anyone out there has taken my song and used it for anything, they'll find themselves on the business end of the Sennen Pencil. And it won't be pretty.

'k? n.n


End file.
